Association of ex-Jonathan ministers (2)

Dr Abubakar Suleiman knows very well that not all of President Jonathan’s ministers have been condemned. Almost every administration has had one or two of its ministers who have been acclaimed for their good works. During Ibrahim Babangida’s dictatorship, the Minister of Health, Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, stood out and was noted for his diligence, especially […]

Dr Abubakar Suleiman knows very well that not all of President Jonathan’s ministers have been condemned. Almost every administration has had one or two of its ministers who have been acclaimed for their good works. During Ibrahim Babangida’s dictatorship, the Minister of Health, Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, stood out and was noted for his diligence, especially in respect of primary health care administration. It is just that many of ex-Jonathan ministers have been fingered for alleged corruption by their own staff, the civil society and the National Assembly.
Not long ago, Olusegun Aganga, ex-Jonathan Minister for Trade and Industry was waylaid by workers of the ministry who publicly shouted, ole (thief) at him. According to them, money budgeted for their ministry had been so thoroughly stolen that they didn’t even have functional toilets.
Bala Muhammed, the ex-Jonathan Minister of the FCT, had allegedly soiled his hands in the land swap deals. He was also notorious for inviting some dubious companies to swindle Abuja residents of their hard earned money in the name of parking fees which rather than being used to improve the roads allegedly went to private pockets. It is such a shame that up to the time Bala left his post, the so called Abuja rail line on which the government had spent billions of Naira had not been completed. Abuja has also remained without a befitting motor terminus as the Jabi motor park continues to be an eye sore.
Elder Godsday Orubebe, you would recall, was initially shunned by late Umar ‘Yar adua when he appeared for swearing in ceremony as minister of state, Niger Delta. It was then left for his godfather, Chief Edwin Clark, to rationalise Yar’adua’s cold feet over Orubebe’s appointment. At a point, Asari Dokubo had also lambasted Orubebe, with whom they used to hang out while trying to catch night buses from the Niger Delta to Lagos, for trying to act like a big man. It’s a known fact that Orubebe’s skill acquisition centres in the Niger Delta have remained expensive and uncompleted. Despite being an Ijaw tribesman, Orubebe’s ministering of stupendous amount of money had left the so called East-West Road uncompleted. Orubebe’s final act of desperation to sabotage the declaration of final results of the 2015 presidential election, produced and directed by Jonathan’s Aso Villa, was a testimony to his lack of honour and treachery.
Diezani Alison-Madueke, ex-Jonathan’s minister of petroleum, “Nigeria’s greatest oil minister”, will go down as the most controversial of them all. From her disgraceful neglect of local refineries to failure to construct new ones; from her alleged reckless use of public funds to hire planes for global air jamboree to her opaque and costly oil swaps; Nigeria’s first female oil minister had shown remarkable disdain for established rules and lack of love for the country.  Any wonder, Alison-Madueke had been repeatedly subjected to probes by the National Assembly and indicted by the legislators.
Mohammed Bello Adoke, the ex-Jonathan’s minister of justice and attorney-general, was himself alleged to have played a dishonourable role in the Malabu oil deal. Ahead of the general elections earlier this year, some members of staff of ministry of justice were discovered to have sworn to some court affidavits and positioned themselves to scuttle the use of card reader for the elections. It was only when the civil society cried out that these clowns backed out.
Abba Moro, ex-Jonathan’s minister of the interior may well have blood on his hands. Abba Moro allegedly hijacked the process of recruitment into the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in order to populate it with his preferred candidates. He appointed a company that collected millions of Naira in administrative charges from job applicants and put in place a shoddy recruitment procedure that led to the death of many of the candidates in stadia across the country. When confronted, instead of him to take responsibility, Abba Moro said it was the devil that caused their death. If Abba Moro was given a ministerial assignment and he decided to bring in the devil to help him do his murderous job, surely he needed to be punished.
Stella Oduah was one of the most flamboyant and scandalous of ex-Jonathan’s ministers. There are countless Nigerians who would be glad to take on the aviation portfolio without wasting public money. But Stella Oduah claimed that her life was in danger and she needed bullet-proof cars to move around and perform her duties. She therefore approved the purchase of these vehicles for her use at inflated rates, over and above her approving limits and despite the countrywide outrage, wanted to keep her job.
It is clear, therefore, contrary to Dr Abubakar Suleiman’s claim that many of the ex-Jonathan ministers were working hard for themselves and not the country. It is instructive that Dr Suleiman had avoided saying that electricity supply had improved under his principal, arguing instead that under Jonathan “Nigeria’s electric power sector became more competitive and attractive” which itself is premature judgement. We all know that Jonathan took government money and gave individuals and companies to buy these privatised national power assets. It is also laughable to say that the Jonathan government had saved the country N100 billion previously “paid to ghost workers and pensioners”, because this money yet again ended up in the pockets of ghost officials. How come that by the time Jonathan was leaving government many federal workers were not being paid salary and several states were broke.
I want to reiterate that Dr Suleiman wrote his letter on behalf of the ex-Jonathan ministers in a hurry; otherwise, he wouldn’t have forgotten their flagship achievement, namely, the hundreds of the Almajiri schools they had built. Except that Kaduna, the home state of Jonathan’s Vice President, Namadina Sambo, has remained the headquarters of the Almajiri in Nigeria. But why didn’t the Kaduna Almajiri vote for PDP?
Twitter:@Comrade Abubakar